


Never Going Back

by ShrineMaidenOfRan



Category: VenturianTale Characters (Web Series)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Gen, enderal arc, the others are mentioned but don't have a big enough role to warrant a character tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 17:25:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15078086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShrineMaidenOfRan/pseuds/ShrineMaidenOfRan
Summary: alternate title: the enderal arc was bad for everyone involved





	Never Going Back

    4e 37, 23 Last Seed

    Sari’s been acting real weird for a while, like, for years now.  Didn’t want to write about it before now because this is my journal not hers, the pressed flowers in the front really scream “This is Mimi’s journal”, but either way I’m getting really concerned about her.  I saw her completely snap at Lena just this morning, it’s about 4 in the afternoon as I write this for reference, and I know for a fact that she used to put up with sis’s shit with a smile instead of a punch in the throat.  Lena wasn’t even trying to have a sudden “friendly spar” with her, she was just cleaning the meat for lunch or supper so she had a knife in her hand and Sari just decked her and ran away. She’s also been cleaning like a maniac, haven’t seen the manor this clean since…well, since Asylum disappeared.

    I’m not going to lie to you, O Journal Of Mine, we’re all feeling the affects of his disappearance.  The manor just doesn’t have the same jovial, if chaotic, vibe to it anymore, his pile of treasure in the corner sits abandoned (cobwebs and everything) as it’s the one part of the house Sari refuses to tidy up and, Hell, she even got upset at me when I went to put the gems in a chest so I could put a flowerpot there.  I think she’s getting affected the worst. I know that she was the closest to him, even though she was his stalker and I knew him for longer but whatever, not like I was that kind of interested in him anyways.

    She used to be the sweetest mer I ever knew, no less an Orc be more civilized than some of the people in my blood family, but now she’s a nervous wreck, snapping at anyone who even slightly upsets her.  I wish there was some way I could help her, tell her that he wouldn’t just up and leave, especially without telling anyone or taking any of his treasures along, but she just doesn’t listen to reason at this point.  Not that reason was ever a very strong persuasive tactic in this house, it’s a literal house of Madness, but now it wasn’t just the fun kind of insanity but the darker, mind controlling fear kind, best shown by the way Sari’s eyes are always slightly opened more than normal, always looking about the room she’s in no matter what she’s doing.  She probably does it in her sleep, too. _Does_ she even sleep anymore?  I’ll have to look into that.

    I can hear her coming up the stairs, gotta stop writing for today, I don’t know how she’ll react if she finds out I’m writing about her.

 

    Mimi tucked her journal into the desk drawer as Sari completed her march up the stairs, and wiped off the tip of the feather pen with a cloth and set the pen next to the inkwell just so, corking the inkwell as Sari peered into the room, searching it for anything out of place like a hawk looking for field mice in tall grass.  Before Mimi could say anything, she left out the door to the balcony and slammed the door, most likely unintentionally with how fast she was going. Even though she had no intention of eavesdropping, as Mimi went by the door to go downstairs, she could faintly hear heartbroken sobbing.

* * *

 

    4e 38, 4 First Seed

    Kajsa’s been having a lack of energy lately, and he doesn't seem to be seeing as well.  I don't claim to know the aging process of trolls, I always thought they lived forever until they were killed by something else, but this is no doubt because Asylum's not around.  I don't know much about necromancy either, but maybe a necromancer’s creations have to stay close to their reanimators lest after so long apart they lose their magical energy and...I'm not going to finish that sentence.  Besides, Asylum gave us all conditional immortality, Kajsa couldn't just keel. Unless losing reanimation magic counts as an “extenuating external circumstance”, whatever that means. If Asylum ever gets back believe me I'm going to get all the information he knows out of him even if I have to put a sword through his gut to do it.  Sari doesn’t deserve this, I don’t deserve this, none of us do. If I could kill him, and Sari wouldn’t have a complete meltdown because of it, by the Nine I would string him up myself. Boy is he lucky he’s immortal.

    In other news, the flower bushes look like they’re doing fine.  Winter doesn’t really come here in Anvil, so it’s more like everything’s dormant for a few months with a light sugardust of snow.  Looks damn depressing, all of the browns interspersed with the reds of the snowberry bushes I planted two _decades_ ago.

    Wow, two decades have passed and I look like I’ve barely aged a day.  Magic’s weird like that, I guess. No less daedric magic.

    Speaking of daedric magic, some more vigilants of Stendarr tried to kill us for “conflating with daedra” or whatever the fuck.  They didn’t stand a chance, of course, but they’re getting annoying as shit. We aren’t doing anything remotely related to evil, nor is the daedric prince we’re associated with in the public’s eye really evil but hey, the imperial machine relies on black and white thinking to control the minds and actions of its citizens.  Gods I hate the Empire, but the Aldmeri dominion certainly isn’t better.

 

    Nope, I’m not writing about politics in my journal, I’m just not.  That’s where my line is drawn. Shutting this one down for the day, I am.

* * *

 

    He’s going to be back any day now.  Any day, Sari just knows it. It may have been over ten years since he disappeared but he’s coming home she just _knows_ it, and the house has to be _just_ how he left it when he does: spotless.  Ooohhh he’s going to be so impressed with her dedication to this manor when he comes back he’ll say yes for sure.

    Oh, who was she kidding, he’s been gone for decades now, he’s probably dead, or stuck in some sort of vicious time loop, or any number of horrible things, and all she was doing was for naught.  Might as well use the kingsize bed for two for herself and her tears. Three would be a party, anyways.

    She can’t let anyone see her discouraged though, definitely not.  If they see her get demoralized then everyone else will crumble as well.  She might as well be the center of the group now, the heart of the hydra, she can’t fail.  If this is how Asylum felt then no wonder he probably up and abandoned everything.

    She remembered when she first met him in that inn back in Chorrol.  He was just the kind of freedom she was looking for, he was the physical embodiment of adventure, perfect for running away with and leaving an old life behind, whether he liked that notion himself or not.  Delving into caves, looking for treasure, tromping around in the wilderness all across Cyrodiil, that was the perfect life for her. They had been through so much together, and she eventually fell for him, and him for her as well.  At least, that’s what she thought. She wasn’t so sure anymore. And what a time to be unsure, he vanished the day before she was going to pop the big question.

    Sari glanced over to the small, red box on the nightstand beside her, then turned her head away quickly and dug her head into the feather pillow, and cried her eyes out.

    When she finally deigned to notice the world around her once again, it must have been the witching hour.  The dead of night with no one else awake, except for Jerry, who was probably examining bones down in the basement again or wandering around the house silently, as he does, just waiting to unintentionally scare someone.  Sari stared blankly at the ceiling, following all the different cracks in the stones, trying to bore herself to sleep, hoping she would actually get a tangible amount of it this week. Somewhere in the middle of her going circles around the bottom left cornerstone of the ceiling, there was a fizzling sound and a dark green light shone through the window from the street.  She assumed it was some of the mages from down the road doing late night experiments and went back to staring at the ceiling.

    What she knew wasn’t a Mage’s College experiment, however, was the slow creaking open of the door downstairs that echoed through the house.  She knew none of the others in the house would leave at the dead of night, no less so quietly, so it must be an _intruder_.  Sari, suddenly snapped into focus by that thought, hopped quietly out of bed and grabbed her warhammer, which was leaning in the corner of the room near the door, and took all of the precious items in the room, which she kept on her nightstand for just this occasion, and shoved them in her pocket.

    Slowly, she opened the bedroom door, hammer at the ready, and crept down the stairs, wanting to see who had broken in so easily before she pressed the attack.  She rounded the corner and looked at the intruder, illuminated by a Magelight spell as they hunched over the gems in the corner next to the fireplace. From what she could see, whoever it was had to be short, though with them being hunched over they could be average height for a human race, there were thick dreads in a ponytail that reached down past the shoulders, so whoever that is is a Redguard.  Her heart skipped a beat. She saw a sword at their side, on the left, with the end of the sheath decorated with gems. Her heart skipped another beat. She took a breath in too sharply, and whoever stood before her heard it and turned around. There was a lightning magic scar down the right side of their face, starting at their, his, temple and just barely missing his eye as it stretched down to his jaw.  There were slight wrinkles around his mouth from expressing too much, most likely from pouting, as laugh lines are up higher on the face. The magelight may drain most of the color from that which it illuminates, but she’s able to make out the almost ashen, bark colored skin, that angry browline, those intense golden eyes…!

    “...Sari?”  His voice. Oh my Gods, his _voice_!!!

    “Asylum?”  She dropped her warhammer, making a loud clunk on the ground.  His eyes started welling up.

    “Sari!!!”  He ran up to her, hugging her as tight as he could and sobbing.

    Sari stood still for a moment in shock, then desperately clung to him as well, placing her head on top of his as she felt a desperate few tears welling up.  She tried to talk, but each inkling of what could be a word got choked up in her throat, becoming a garbled mess. She heard Asylum talk too, but she didn’t understand what language he was speaking well enough to be able to translate what he’s saying through the tears and all they entail.  Her legs became weak and gave out, sending them both tumbling to the floor, as Asylum had been using her for support as well. Laying on the stone floor, they looked each other in the eyes, and Sari reached out, tracing Asylum’s new scar.

    “I’ve been looking for you for so long, Sar, I almost gave up, I-”  Asylum stumbled and choked on his words, but Sari didn’t need to know the rest of the sentence as she pulled him close.

    “I knew you would return.  You always find a way out of hairy situations.  No matter how hackneyed or backwards the method or how long it takes.”  Sari’s words were surprisingly clear.

    “Is everyone else here?”  Asylum pushed away from Sari so he could look at her, voice still higher pitched from his emotions.

    “Huh?”

    “Mimi, Lena, Kajsa.  Even Jerry. Are they here?”  He sounded genuinely concerned, as if they would have vanished while he was gone.

    “Yes.  Yes they’re here.  We all waited for you, Asylum.  Everyone’s sleeping, but here.”  She reassured him.

    Asylum took a deep, shaky breath.  “Good. Good. I’m never leaving this house again without you, Sari.  I don’t want to lose you again.” His voice was almost a whisper.

    “Well, if you like my next question, we’d have more a reason to be together…”  Sari dug around in her pockets.

    “I could never think of a reason I would want to be with you more, my love, I’ll never let anything tear us-oh.”  Asylum was interrupted by seeing the special, almost ceremonial box.

    “Asylum Kyte Weaver, w-”  Sari didn’t even have to finish her question before Asylum started crying again.

    “Yes!  Yes, yes yes, a thousand times!  I would love to be with you now and forevermore!”  He hugged Sari awkwardly on the ground, as the magelight spell burnt out.

**Author's Note:**

> you're welcome, Angy


End file.
